Rotary drill bit



- July 19, 1932. REESE 1,868,074-

ROTARY DRILL BIT Filed June 29, 1929 [N VENTOR. L/sse C Reese A r roe/VI):

' JESSE c. REESE, on

(swin -w ive. 7 v

Patented July 19, 1932 TES MONTEBELLO, c ntons, Ass'ieivo'rt COMPANY Lrn, a CORPORATION QENEVADA tOTARYQ-D FL Bli' blade, and relates'to rotary drilling bits of the character employed in the Wells by the rotary system. Y I

In thepresent practiceof the rotary method of" well drilling, a toolis rotat-ed in the hole by means of a string-of. drill pipe which extends from thetool in upward direction through the upper portion of the hole and is engaged for purpose of rotation by a rotary table. Rotary mud is pumped down through the drill pipe and is discharged through openings in or near the drill bit, this mud serving to support the walls of the hole and carry out the cuttings which have been produced bythe drillbit.

. In the drilling of a well, various substances must be penetrated, among which are shale, rock, and gumbo. 'The requirements. of a drill bitvary withthe character" of the material being penetrated; for instance where the bit is employed to penetrate hard substances, such asrock, it must be capable of withstanding severe abrasive action, but where soft materials are being penetrated an essential drilling of requirement of the drill bit is that it will not become clogged or that the materials will-not ball up thereon in a' 'man ner to slowdown the 'c utting action of the bit. Inpenetra ting thelsoft' materials which are cohesive in-nnture, jsuch' as gumbo, theordinarytypesol An object of my invention isto provide a rotary bits will become 'cloggedso that the progress of the drillingoperation is seriously reduced. v i

' bit having a total length of cutting edges V for the much greater than the diameter ofthe hole being drilled and to so place these'cutting edges thatxthey will. effectively operate making it possible to operate'the bit within a hole for. a maximum period of time before it becomes necessary to pull th'edrilling strin g purpose of redressing orreplacing the bit 7. ,1 w

'Itis also an ob jectjof theinvention toprovide a bit of'the above character havingthe 1929. Serial 1T0. 874,742};

baa; thereorfsb :positionedthatthey will 7 naturally be self-clearing in'their' action-s0 aslto minimize thegpossibilityof clo ging to 1 l the extent that the'cutting action o the 'ing;

dividual blades will be interferedwith, and it is a further object of the inventiontofso placethebladeswof thebit'that'the cutting I I v action thereof will be one of slicing rather" thanof scraping, {as occurs in the "useofthe' fish-tail type of bit.

A'further object oftheinvention vis'topro V Y i vide- V a" rotary bit having. reamer blades so formed thatia relativel'y long cutting; edge is presented in lateral direction, sothat the re duction in diameter of the drill bit due. to weary-will be thereby minimized,-and to so To new: 'semsnm construct and place these reaming blades that they will be self-clearing and will therefore not gumvup during drilling operations'." V :In my previous. form 01E drill bit haying downwardly directed cutting "blades vplaced so asto operate with a slicing action, 'vertical reaming edges or blades are employed. Although these previous isfactory in that their rate of penetration is quite'high as compared to other typesofb'its H with which I have'h'ad experience, there'is a bits prove very sat tendency for the removed-materials to clog orpack on the forward faces' of there'aming blades with detrimental efi'ectfi) j operate with asli'c ingactiomand due to this 7 the sidel wallsoflthe' hole ismaterially increased relative to the verticalheight of Wall surface operated on by such reaming blades.

.with thefresult, that the gauge of the drill a bit 1 having very, long cutting edges 1 over which the wearproduced in the cuttingop; eration is distributed; these cutting edges being preferablyfaced rfdressed with a with diamond-like hard alley or being set material such as tungsten carbide.

Other objects and advantages of bitiis maintained for a greater period 0f against the formation to be-penetratedgthus 2" a V r increasing the useful life of the drill bit and It an Oblect of the mventlon to provlde .7 7 In'mynew const'ruction thereaming blades i vention will appear in the followingpart of the specification. V I Referring to the drawing which is for 1 ,7 inthe drawing,

] means such as a threaded open1ng12 whe'reby the-body 11 may be secured-tothe lower end of a drilling shaft which is. customarily formed vby securing lustrative purposes only,

' Fig.1'is a" front elevation ofa'rotary bit embodying the invention; vFig. '2' is abottom view Fig.1. 1 V

Fig. 3 1s a side elevation corresponding to Fig." 11* In the embodiment of'my inventionshown of the bit shown'in a body 11 is provided having I -lengths of} drill pipe :to-I

getherii Projecting downwardly from the 7 plane represented A by line AeJeAofFig. 2. a p As "further: shown -.in' Fig. 2,?1the central to'theirdirection of l'owerpart of the body.

blades13,"

v outer drilling are central drilling 1' drilling blades '14,'and These drilling intermediate blades 15,."

blades are alignedwith respect to a vertical blades 13 ing bit'is sides ofj:

. throug thehbody 11 to the horizontal center,

ardly curved with respect movement when the drillrotated and are spaced on opposite a' vertical 'duct'16 which extends.

thethreaded opening are forw 12 sozas-to receive drilling mud or otherrliq l uidpump pipeyto the lower'iend of whichthe bit is seflcur'ed' Theiatihieaia blades 15 ed downf through the string of drill and the outer are so disposed that their respective ;inner'faces 17: :and 18 slope outwardly'with reference with the result that forward ends 19 of cutting edge blades 14-. are-disposed at radial distance from the center of er than f'ther-radialdistance 0 to the "diametral center line fA-.A,

s 20 providedby the intermediate rotation 21,.Fig; 2, greatfthe rearward ends 22 of the cutting edges20 from the "center-lofrotation' 2 cutting edges24c provided by the outer 1,;and forward" ends 23 of" blades 2 :15 will be at greater radialdistance from-the movements-l and, being so dispo 'erses a circular area center 'of The cutting edges mediateand'outer than rear'ends' thereof.

20" and :24: of the interblades 14' and 15 are. disrotation posed at an angle relative to their direction-of sed; eachftravof considerablyless width than thelengthofthe blade whichmakescut ting engagement in snchcircular area 1 ,IAs shownin Figs. 1

"20 and 24 r as ends 22 and. 25 towar 19 and 23. w

' Y An additional featur and Q Htt iglQdgS slope'jdownwardlylfrom their rear d their forward [ends e' of the present structifonis the placingof the forward ends 1-9 r theintermedi'ate bla .1 tance from the cent rearward ends 25 of the 'outer'blades 15; as er'ceived fromre-ference to the dot ted line'27 Fig. I 2-, which represents an arc will be p des 14] at greater'disi er of'rot'ation 21 than the the-1 b in ll v central duct 163-lateral -diagonal ducts 30m ay" ment of the cuttings along-the inner faces 17 with 1 I cutting venting the clogging-o in the circular. line of movement ofthe in ner end- 25 of one" of the outer blades 15.

Besides having a slicing-action, the inter 3 mediate blades 14 are so placed relative to the inner blades 13 and t i'e outer blades 15 that Y the circular areas/traveled by each of the blades will overlap therefore a cutting action will beperformed on the entire bottom face of be formed so as to communlcate atv openings 31 wit-hthe spaces between the intermediate blades14 and outerblades 15. V

The slicing action, of the cutting edges 20 and 24'produces arearward and inward moveand' '18 of the cutting blades 1&3111 1 5,

In addition to the theresult that the cuttings do not remain stationary with respect to the inner facescof the blades butare-caused to be discharged, from the-spaces the cutting blades; consequentl of the bit does :not ordinarily 10c operations in very sticky substances,

between cl ng G1 even 1 such as On the outer diagonal faces-33 of the outer blades 15 upper andlower reaming to move therealong and From the helical cutting V be perceived from viewing the ends 'iO thereof in Fig.1. The

cutting edges 3? of thereamingblades35 and 36, which are preferably set with hard alloy, i i travelthrough circular paths around the axis of; rotation 21 and operateto remove materials from the side walls of the hole being 7 4 drilled. a

'The cutting larly relative to of movement when perform an upwardly edges are disposed i'iangu-" their horizontal direction the bit is, in rotation and f slicing action: in; 'ace complishing the cutting away of the:cyl in drical side walls, this slicing action causing the cuttings to move rearwardly and upwardly along the upper and'fo'rward helical faces 38'of'the reamer blades 35 and;36,-pro

ducing a constantremoval or clearing ofthe;

cuttings from the reaming blades: and pre+ the front faces 0 vertical direction.[ It will be perceivedthat each cutting edge-37 is of a length -which is considerably greater than the vertical di mension'or-height ersed by such cutting edge the cutting edge resulting fro-In its j engage= of the circular path trave g during rotation'f of the bit, and jthatitherefore the wear on e 12 f materials against the reaming blades as 00- "curs where reamingblades are placed in] ment with the side walls of the hole is dis-L tributed over a substantially greaterextent of cutting edge than where cutting edges are placed in perpendicular position relative to their direction of movement.

At the lower end of each lower reaming blade 36 I form a downwardly projecting advance reaming tooth 45 which may have a substantially vertical front face 46 and which is preferably separated from the outer face 33 of its cooperating cutting blade by a groove or channel 47.

In the construction of the reaming blades I preferthat they shall be positioned substantially as shown so that the advance cutting teeth 45 will be near to the cutting plane gression and an advance reaming tooth projecting downwardly from; the j lowermost blade of each set ofreaming blades. L

In testimony whereof, I-have hereunto set it my hand at Los Angeles, California, this 21st 70 dayof June,-"1929.

' JESSE o; "REESE;

of the cutting vblades. 14 and 15. These ad vancereaming teeth 45 are built up with hard alloy which may include calcium carbide and thus are capable of standing up under very hard usage. They are also of such form that they may be repeatedly built up, it being understood also that in the use of the rotary bit all of the cutting edges may be renewed by welding on metal to replace that which has been worn away during the drilling operation. V v V Inthe use of a bit of the character previously described, a rapid rate'of drilling is maintained for the reason that the cutting edges are kept free from accumulation of cuttings, for the reason that the cutting action is one of slicing ratherthan of scraping,

and for the reason that the wear resulting from the cutting operation is distributed over a relatively long cutting edge.

V I have herein shown my invention in simple and operative form, but it is recognized that certain parts or elements thereof are representative of other parts, (elements, or

" ioo I mechanisms which may be employed in substantially the same manner to accomplish substantially the same results; therefore, it

is to be understood that the invention shall not be limited to the details disclosed but shall have the scope of the following claim.

I claim as my invention: Y

A bit of the character described, including:

a body adapted for rotation on the end of a string of drill pipe, said body havinga vertical duct extending through the center there of; a plurality of central blade members projecting downwardly from said body, said central blade members having inner faces parallel with the cylindrical wallofsaid ver- 7 s tical duct; intermediatev and outer blade members projecting, downwardly; from said 

